Quantum Criminals : : Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, and Other Sole Survivors from the Songs of Steely Dan / / Alex Pappademas, Joan LeMay.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Texas Press Complete eBook-Package 2023
• VerfasserIn: Pappademas, Alex,; LeMay, Joan,
• Place / Publishing House: Austin : : University of Texas Press, , [2023]; ©2023
• Year of Publication: 2023
• Language: English
• Series: American Music Series
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (240 p.) :; 109 illustrations

A literary and visual exploration of the songs of Steely Dan. Steely Dan’s songs are exercises in fictional world-building. No one else in the classic-rock canon has conjured a more vivid cast of rogues and heroes, creeps and schmucks, lovers and dreamers and cold-blooded operators—or imbued their characters with so much humanity. Pulling from history, lived experience, pulp fiction, the lore of the counterculture, and their own darkly comic imaginations, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker summoned protagonists who seemed like fully formed people with complicated pasts, scars they don’t talk about, delusions and desires and memories they can’t shake. From Rikki to Dr. Wu, Hoops McCann to Kid Charlemagne, Franny from NYU to the Woolly Man without a Face, every name is a locked-room mystery, beguiling listeners and earning the band an exceptionally passionate and ever-growing cult fandom. Quantum Criminals presents the world of Steely Dan as it has never been seen, much less heard. Artist Joan LeMay has crafted lively, color-saturated images of her favorite characters from the Daniverse to accompany writer Alex Pappademas’s explorations of the famous and obscure songs that inspired each painting, in short essays full of cultural context, wild speculation, inspired dot-connecting, and the occasional conspiracy theory. All of it is refracted through the perspectives of the characters themselves, making for a musical companion unlike any other. Funny, discerning, and visually stunning, Quantum Criminals is a singular celebration of Steely Dan’s musical cosmos.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Jack -- Walter -- Donald -- King Richard/ King John -- Lady Bayside -- Chino & Daddy Gee -- Michael/Jesus -- The Charmer -- The Fella in the White Tuxedo -- Dan -- David -- Mr. Whatever -- Louise -- Cathy -- The El Supremo -- The King of the World -- Rikki -- The Major Dude -- Mr. Parker -- Buzz -- Napoleon -- The Archbishop -- Dr. Wu -- Mr. LaPage -- Owsley -- A Bookkeeper’s Son -- The Eagles -- Babs & Clean Willie -- The Old Man -- Pepe -- A Wooly Man without a Face -- Peg -- Sayoko -- Peter/Tariq/ Daniel -- The Expanding Man -- Broadway Duchess -- Josie -- The Babylon Sisters -- Hoops McCann/ The Dread Moray Eel -- The Dandy of Gamma Chi/Aretha Franklin -- The Gaucho -- A Jolly Roger -- Third World Man -- Abbie/Dupree -- Franny from NYU -- Lizzie -- Jill -- Gina -- Dave from Acquisitions -- Daddy -- Acknowledgments -- Notes